An open ecosystem supporting the pharmaceutical industry to comply with DSCSA requirements and streamline operations using innovative solutions

OCI supports solutions that utilize verifiable credentials and digital wallets, and establishes independent open industry conformance guidelines.

Who We Are

The Open Credentialing Initiative (OCI) is an independent collaborative non-profit group that was born out of the DSCSA Authorized Trading Partner Pilot, which successfully demonstrated the use of global open standards, in particular W3C-specified Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs) standards, as well as GS1 industry standards, to establish Authorized Trading Partner (ATP) status in automated product verification. 

Following the pilot’s successful conclusion in February 2021, OCI realized the need for further industry collaboration to support adopting companies, shepherd efforts in standardization & governance to maintain the neutral, flexible framework and expand the use of digital verifiable credentials to streamline further business processes. 

The initiative is an incubator project of the Center for Supply Chain Studies (C4SCS), which brought together trading partners representing all US pharmaceutical supply chain segments, solution providers, and standards organizations to support the industry in timely DSCSA compliance.

OCI establishes and maintains technical governance, specifications and guidelines in an open, trusted environment that:

  • Advances the implementation of VCs for long-term success

  • Defines conformance and interoperability criteria

  • Leverages collaboration among standards organizations

  • Provides a place to learn and adopt the architecture

  • Explores further credential-based use cases

How you can participate

OCI offers various opportunities for participation from within and outside our membership.

Non-members can peruse and use our published material, provide feedback and technical contributions, participate in open calls, act as advisors, and help shape our work, in particular our Emerging Initiatives and Programs. Thus, if you do not want to commit to a membership, you can still help us chart the way forward. It is crucial for OCI to gain insights from industry professionals and experts, since we aim to develop the basis for solutions that cater to your needs.

On top of all this, members can participate in member-only activities, vote on decisions and facilitate OCI operations.

OCI org chart

Become Part of the Ecosystem

 

The ecosystem is open to Trading Partners, Solution Providers, Associations, Standards Bodies and others interested in contributing to future enhancements of the architecture and use cases.

Interested in becoming part of the ecosystem? Drop us an email.

OCI Ecosystem

  • Credential Issuer

    A Credential Issuer verifies enterprise identity and license information before issuing Verifiable Credentials to Trading Partners. OCI-compliant Credential Issuers ensure that only trusted Trading Partners can act as ATP.

  • Digital Wallet Provider

    A Digital Wallet Provider offers software for Trading Partners and Credential Service Providers to manage enterprise identities and Verifiable Credentials. These are the backbone of OCI’s decentralized identity and credentialing architecture.

  • Trading Partner

    Pharmaceutical supply chain actors like manufacturers, wholesalers, repackagers, third-party logistics providers and dispensers. All these entities can use credentialing to support DSCSA compliance and improve operational efficiency.

  • Service Provider

    Software companies that offer products for verification routing, track and trace or other data management requirements of Trading Partners. OCI supports Service Providers with documentation and design principles that enable a lean and cost-efficient integration of credentialing.

Discover OCI Community